Mannequin Pussy’s live shows are like exorcisms. Frontwoman Marisa Dabice is a feral presence, her powerful vocals emitted with the kind of intensity that would seem impossible to replicate on a consistent basis. Yet the Philadelphia band — which also includes guitarist Thanasi Paul, drummer Kaleen Reading and bassist Colins “Bear” Regisford — has toured relentlessly behind last year’s Romantic, an enthralling record full of terse relationship songs that are even more visceral when delivered in a live setting.
Romantic is surprisingly eclectic for an album of such to-the-point brevity (11 songs in 17 minutes). Songs range from the Hardcore of album-opener “Kiss” to the ebb-and-flow, Geraldine Fibbers-esque dynamics of “Romantic” to the hook-laden “Denial,” which sounds like The Breeders doing their best Garage Rock impression. CityBeat recently tracked down Dabice to discuss everything from the next Mannequin Pussy record to the role of artists in such politically polarizing times.
CityBeat: You’ve been on the road for much of the last year, which I imagine is pretty tough given how much physical and emotional energy you put into your live shows. It almost seems like an exorcism for you. What’s it been like for you to go to that intense level as often as you have recently?
Marisa Dabice: There are definitely nights where before I’m like, “I don’t know how I’m going to do this.” Kind of the nature of touring is that it is like a full mind-, body- and soul-exhaustion experiment. You’re constantly not quite comfortable and probably deficient in something. But as soon as you’re onstage you just kind of have to push all that aside and just go through it. That’s what I aspire to do every night — not think about anything internally and externally I’m complaining about and drop into that music blackout for a little bit. That’s the only way you get through it. I am definitely exhausted at this point in our touring cycle. I wanted to stay home. I just want to work on the next record, but that’s not an option right now. Everything we’re doing right now is so exciting that I’m like, “OK, I’m going to get over that feeling.”
CB: I don’t think the four of you had played much together before recording Romantic. How do you think touring so much of late will impact the next album?
MD: I’m very excited about the next record, mostly because we’ve been playing with each other so much that we understand each other’s styles very well and we’re really tight right now. From the nature of touring so much, we’ve really learned how to communicate with each other in an effective way. So working on stuff is so much easier because we actually know how to talk to each other about things and ideas and being honest about it if one of us is doing something that isn’t working. We’re not as shy with each other, so it makes the writing process a lot more open and exciting.
CB: Most of the lyrics on Romantic are written from a first-person perspective and seem intensely personal in nature…
MD: I definitely made a conscious effort to move away from that — that lyrical necessity of saying what I feel — and maybe starting to focus less on the feeling and maybe more on the needs and the desires of things. I think the next album is going to be less centered on myself.
CB: You’ve talked about the corrosive nature of social media. Do you feel like with the pervasive nature of Twitter and Facebook and the rest that musicians have lost some of the mystery that was inherent pre-internet?
MD: I think it’s definitely a loss. There is something with most of the people I know who are in my position as artists — a lot of us are kind of strange, damaged people. We kind of would like to keep our private lives private and like to put what we’re feeling and doing into our music and leave it there. The culture now kind of necessitates this willingness to really be open and share. It is kind of like open therapy.
There is something that actually is useful and beautiful about that. I think if maybe that kind of culture had been around when I was a teenager I might not have felt so alone in whatever I was going through at the time. It would have been easier to find people who were experiencing similar tragedies and traumas. But it does put a lot of pressure on an artist to not only be entertaining through your music and your live performances, but also in the personality that you’re putting across through these social mediums. That is an art in itself that many of us are not very good at and shouldn’t really be expected to do.
CB: You guys have been pretty outspoken when it comes to your political and social beliefs — the most obvious being the “Fuck Trump” T-shirt Bear wears on tour. What are your thoughts on finding the right balance when it comes to mixing politics and art?
MD: I think that’s up to each individual artist to decide for themselves. With artists, as with the general population, there’s a real variety in those of us who truly care and are interested in things that are going on politically in our world and those of us who are a little bit more nihilistic and apathetic about it. I have artist friends who are extremely vocal about it and others who could not give less of a shit.
There are almost two schools of thought with how you approach politics through your art, which is you can really let it influence it and you use this platform and this opportunity and this microphone you have in order to say something and remind people of what’s going on. Or you look at art as this ability to kind of free people from the political world that we constantly exist in. Is art an escape? Or is art ramming a message back down your throat? I like to think as a band we like to exist a little bit between those worlds. I want the escapism and the catharsis to come out through our music, but I also want it to be clear that staying engaged — and more so just taking care of each other — is the most important thing.
MANNEQUIN PUSSY plays Woodward Theater Sunday with Cherry Glazerr and Leggy. Tickets/more info: woodwardtheater.com.
This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 2, 2017.